DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

The rig has a perfect feel to it when it’s on the shoulder. The shoulder pad has a very comfortable shape and sits tightly with a lot of grip, you can either let it rest, pull or push it against your shoulder to gain more stability.

The slightly angled handles allow a very good arm position and make it possible to rest your elbows on your hips, which highly improves stability and makes it possible to shoot for long hours. The only other rig that also had this advantage was the DvTec.

Note:
We installed the shoulder pad upside down which is not how Vocas intended it to be set up. The shoulder pad has a downward angle when installed correctly.

One of the things we like most about this rig is that it has very few movable parts. There is not much you can adjust. Does that matter? Surprisingly no. This is due to the fact that it already sits perfect from the start. This makes the Vocas rig very quick and easy to use, it won’t distract you from your work, which is very important. We cannot praise this fact enough.

A downside of the Vocas handheld rig is that currently, it doesn’t use a counterweight. There is a stackable weight in production as we speak.

At the back of the shoulder pad there are four holes that will hold these weights. In the other tests we’ve seen that counterweights that can’t be positioned outward, (to the right) will worsen the sideways balance. When we look at the renderings on their homepage, we think that the same issue will apply to the Vocas counterweight parts.

There is a screw on either side of the shoulder bracket that locks it to the rails. The screw requires a quarter twist and locks real hard. We appreciate the simplicity of the bracket. Like any good quality gear, this one also comes at a price.